Hi everyone,
I suffer from PCOS, I weigh 17stones 31years old. I was looking into gastric options mainly gastric balloon. As I am desperate to lose weight and have tried slimming world and live well over time. I lose it then gain double back. What do you guys suggest as I really want a child now too. What do you all suggest please.
What did your doctor say about changing your diet/exercise routine?
Hi Faiqak, the PCOS Forum might be useful for you?
healthunlocked.com/verity-pcos
The Weight Loss Forum is a very supportive one for those wanting to lose weight, this link coming up next guides you on our bit of the site and we advise you to read it carefully so you know where to find things.
healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...
We recommend members join our Daily Diary pages (members talk about their meal plans,share ideas and questions) and also our weekly Weigh In pages a great source of encouragement. You'll find out how to track those down in the link I've shared.
It might feel like you've started on a long journey but taking todays step of coming on here is a big positive move you've made for yourself,well done! Try and focus on a small initial goal. Focus on healthy food choices, no or reduced use of processed food. Speak with your GP to check if they have any guidance to offer and join in on here via the DD and WI pages so you get to know others. Might also be an idea to check your BMI by the NHS BMI calculator as that will give you a calorie range to aim at.
All the very best to you!
I had pcos and had no idea I had it. I’m in menopause now no kids. You’re supposed to eat a low glycemic index food list. You still need to eat carbs just keep it lower and healthier choices in your carbs like oatmeal and quinoa. You also need healthy fats like olive oil. Try to pair your protein with your carb. And spread out your eating in the day. And sadly less snacking at night. Basically a very healthy lots of homemade with greens eating clean and less carbs but you still need carbs. For pasta I use brown rice pasta (remember you have to rinse it under hot water when done and I only buy the twirly ones as others stick more). You get used to it and learn to prefer it. So you need to stay away from sweets!! If you drink use natural flavoured vodka with club soda add mint leaf or dash pomegranate juice. You learn to like natural flavours. It’s hard. It’s about what you said you’d like to increase chances of having a baby so it’s motivational. I really hope you get too I wish I had.
Why? Why do we need carbs?
Look it up. It’s about glucose and muscle recovery. It’s directly about glucose. You need some carbs in your diet. Why don’t you just solve your diet with a dietician if you’re having trouble on your own??
I have actually done quite a bit of looking into this & a number of very eminent doctors have demonstrated we do not need glucose. The muscles can run fine on fat, and the brain converts fat into ketones that it can use. I challenge you to explain why we ‘need’ glucose because this lovely lady does have time for the nonsense that we ‘need’ glucose. If we ‘need’ glucose, why are all the people following a keto diet on here, including myself, doing just fine? How do people do Ironman triathlons on ketones? Why do doctors prescribe the keto diet for epileptics and people with type 2 diabetes?
My response was written in pain. It didn’t come across correctly. Pcos is an endocrine issue. I myself went to very low carb diet I did mostly paleo & gluten free for years. Managing it with healthy fats as well. We all have our points of view and body what works what doesn’t. I apologize for coming across strong. Have a friend that went to no carbs for years with pcos ( as I had pcos) she did great then it stopped working. I found the same so incorporated gluten free and careful with carbs as I did brown rice & brown rice pasta in minimal amounts. It was a very hard thing to deal with for me & my friend. I did not have an endocrinologist my friend did. She was able to get pregnant lots of women can.. I sincerely want the same for her. I’m just so glad she knows she has this condition it was wrong of me to push my views so strongly I’m very passionate about this I apologize.
You’re fine. It’s been a tough time for you. Best wishes xxxxx
Thanks for your kindness. Best wishes for you as well. I really appreciate your kindness and want the best for you on your path. Passionately I also agree with the other person about cutting out sugar. It greatly helped me. It’s hidden in so many packaged products and salad dressings. It was a real eye opener. I made my own dressings using healthy fats and balsamic vinegar mustards and herbs choosing savoury over sweet. I used low index sugars when I did use them and baked my own weird cookies using gluten free flours as treats as I grew up Dutch background grew up on chocolate sandwiches lol. I feel I was only human so if I knew if I was going for a carb sugar treat I better be armed one I could feel good about.
Stop. Or I will have a little cry.
Hello guitar69 and it’s good to see you on the forum and supporting another member having similar struggles to you 😊
I’m sure you didn’t mean to but your reply above to slim-for-good sounds a little angry and confrontational, we all have our own ideas about weight loss and nutrition and none of us are qualified, this is a peer to peer support group and all views are equally valid. I have to ask you to please moderate your tone
I can see that I’m in pain today.
Thank you. I am an only child too. My brother passed away at 19 and my dad so I am scared to have surgery I would rather lose it naturally but it's so hard especially with Asian diet. My mum is against the idea of me going under knife too. I will go through the comments one by one slowly so much advise.
P.s my GP is useless the surgery has no nutritionist nurses.
PCOS is a symptom of metabolic syndrome, Faiqak, just as obesity is and a low carb diet will help with both. Have a look at these:
Low Carb High Fat
If you stick to it, no faffing or cheating you will be slim in 12 months. If you want a child enough, you will. I had to have IVF for my son & understand a bit of how you feel.
Keto - the strictest form of low carb high fat, has been shown in early studies to reduce the PCOS symptoms.
You don’t have time to mess around with the nonsense of low calorie diets that we can’t stick to. Which is what slimming world is. Nonsense, your body does not work like that. You need to get your metabolic hormones, insulin, grehlin & leptin in balance, as the imbalance has driven your appetite & made you overweight. Only cutting the carbs you eat will do that.
Find our more at carbdodging.com & dietdoctor.com
Also check out Dr David Unwin on YouTube.
As a first step, while you look into it, don’t eat any sugar or anything with sugar in it. You aren’t ‘deprived’ not eating chocolate, you are deprived not being able to be a mother.
You can do this, you will lose a lot of weight, you will not be hungry, but it’s a major lifestyle change. No flirting with it & having a cake every couple of days because ‘we all fall off the wagon’ ‘one little treat won’t hurt’, ‘we need to treat ourselves’ - you can only reset your hormones if you don’t keep giving them carbs to fall back on.
People here will tell you here that there are all sorts of different ways of losing weight, but in the threads, the people who are calorie counting are also the ones who often fall off the wagon & report ‘bad’ weeks for food. The weight is not dropping off them like it does for committed LCHF dieters. Sorry fellow HU members - I don’t mean to be rude but Faiqak needs the best advice going if she’s going to have a chance of a baby,
There’s a LCHF forum here too where we discuss cheese etc:
Also it’s worth logging your meal plan every day in the daily diaries. explaining your diet type. This will force you to plan & you will get support & encouragement from fellow members.
Another thing to look at when you have been doing low carb for a month or so, is intermittent fasting. In short, it’s skipping breakfast - not eating for a longer period also helps our hormones rebalance. S11m can advise on this, & give you the links as he’s the expert.
Hi Faiqak and welcome.
I think the replies have pretty much signposted the road you should probably be journeying along. Of course it will take a big change in your mindset but hopefully, because of your important goal, you'll give your mind the chance to accept that change.
Just my own observation now and maybe someone will contradict me but everyone I have come across on this forum who has had a gastric band found that in the long run it didn't work. This has also been the case from anecdotal evidence from others here who have known people who have had the procedure.
This forum is a family who help each other minute by minute, day by day etc... Join in and you will learn ideas you didn't realise were out there to be learnt and you will have continuous caring support, permanently on tap.
I try to limit saying this, at the risk of boring others to death 
but when I first joined, someone told me... 'if you always do what you've always done, then you'll always get what you've always got'. I use this now to question everything I do and check if I am being stubborn or unthinking.
All the best and looking forward to hearing great news from you further down the line 
Hi Faiqak , welcome.
You have come here in the hope that you do not need bariatric surgery?
If you "slim smart" weight loss is not so hard! It is not all about motivation and masochism.
Some of us here find that what works is a combination of The Low Carbohydrate, High-Fat (LCHF) diet (see the forum here on Health Unlocked) and Not Snacking All Day AKA Intermittent Fasting (IF). See:
Newbies IF FAQ:
healthunlocked.com/fasting-...
The Fasting and Furious Forum, here on Health Unlocked:
Hi there
You are in the right place for advice, for sure!!! Others have already left you lots of advice but my advice would just be to find an option that suits you - you may find that you can do this without resorting to surgery, or that working on a healthy diet and exercise routine could help you to cope with the restrictions caused by gastric surgery.
I also went up and down with little success for a long time until what felt like the right moment and situation for me, and now I have found a way of losing weight which seems to work for me after a while of experimenting. (I will be in the Friday weigh-in tomorrow, so here's hoping this is all still true tomorrow haha) As of last Friday I had lost 1 stone 11lb since the beginning of October.
I use simple calorie restriction and log everything I eat on My Fitness Pal (mobile and web app) which means that even on days when I go over my target calorie intake, I know how much by and can keep track of everything. My NHS recommended intake for a 1 to 2 lb loss was 1900-2400 and I adjusted it to account for times when I am more likely to "stray". Now I aim for 1500 (give or take depending on how many calories I burn from exercise) Monday to Thursday, around 1900/ 2000 on Friday and then up to 2400 Saturday and Sunday. It all sounds complicated, but as it fits with my own tastes, habits and routines it just feels natural. What I'm trying to say is, whether you use elements of Low carb and high fat, intermittent fasting or calorie restriction, you should be able to adjust your diet and exercise routine to suit your own habits and routines to make it as easy as possible. There is no point struggling with something that makes you miserable as that won't be sustainable in the long run. I tried low carb and high fat but was always grouchy and craving sandwiches and ended up hating meat - others, however, love LCHF and many users here swear by it. It's all completely personal! Take some time to think about what you find hard and what you find easier and find what suits you Drop by the daily diaries for some support and join the weekly weigh ins too - the support here is great!
My one friend did really well with keto. I guess it’s a matter of what you can or can’t do. On an Asian diet. I don’t know enough about it. My sister lost weight essentially eating as I had with my condition she was surprised she could eat more just differently. I think she lost over 100 lbs. when she started drinking cheap wine again it really started coming on again. All the sugar in it. My keto friend tried everything Atkins... like everything the keto and changes her sugar as she sat in one spot the sugar change had her drop drastically. We can only try our best.
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